NANTICOKE

Jobs, and a little hope, are coming back to the U.S. Steel Nanticoke plant this fall.

The company has confirmed an Oct. 1 restart for the coke oven battery at the Lake Erie Works, ending a 17-month shutdown.

Union leader Bill Ferguson, of the United Steel Workers, told members in a YouTube video this week reigniting the battery will require some hiring but the exact number of jobs is uncertain.

"This will entail some hiring and training," he said in an interview. "Right now the numbers aren't clear."

The coke battery at the Lake Erie Works normally employs 60 people in its direct operation, but the crew has been scattered throughout the plant since last year's April-August lock out and some may not choose to come back to their old jobs.

U.S. Steel has been in a hiring mood in Nanticoke since the end of the lock out last year that resulted in almost 20 per cent of its Lake Erie workforce leaving for other jobs.

"All of that attrition has by and large been replaced so some new hiring will be needed for this move," Ferguson said.

Coke is produced by heating coal in a series of ovens until it becomes a carbon mass used in blast furnaces to produce iron.

Operating the coke battery has a side benefit for the Lake Erie plant because it produces gases that are burned to fuel other parts of the operation.

"This is good news because it means the fuel will be exactly where we need it," Ferguson said. "This will help produce the necessary gas to sustain the operation."

The coke battery has been idle since the Lake Erie workforce was locked out by the company in April 2013 to back its demands for contract changes. When the confrontation ended in September and steelmaking resumed in October the battery was left idle because U.S. Steel had a backlog of coke resulting from the Nanticoke lock out and the end of steel making at its Hamilton facility. It was predicted then that the ovens wouldn't be reignited for six to eight months.

New York-based steel analyst Chuck Bradford said one reason for the restart of coke making operations in Canada may be trouble with supplies of the material coming from American plants, especially the giant facility in Gary, Ind., where a new technology for making coke has been troubling the company.

"What they put in there was a terrible management mistake," Bradford said. "It was half a billion dollars thrown out the window."

At the same time, its supply has been constricted by the Gary issues and shipping problems on the Great Lakes. Bradford said U.S. Steel's need for the material has risen as steel demand remains high, especially from the American auto industry. "Whatever the reasons this does appear to be good news for now," he said.

U.S. Steel also operates coke ovens, a cold mill, galvanizing and coating lines in Hamilton.

Company spokesperson Trevor Harris did not respond to a request for comment.

The company is to report its first quarter financial results next week. A call with industry analysts is scheduled for Wednesday morning.

ArcelorMittal Dofasco is also moving ahead with changes to its coke oven batteries — the oldest of the three is to be closed down in March 2015 while the company pushes ahead with an $87-million upgrade to the remaining ovens. That work is to be carried out over the next five years.